Bob Newhart and Will Ferrell
courtesy of New Line Cinema
"Will Ferrell Looks For His Inner Elf"

ATLANTA: Will Ferrell looks in person just like he looks on TV. Same tall body, same curly hair, same open personality. In fact you almost expect him to break into a cheer when you talk with him.

I got a chance to sit down and converse with him when he came to Atlanta to promote his new movie "Elf." He is definitely the leading man in this movie and is in just about every scene. "Well I had a stunt double for just about everything," he said. "It wasn't me who got hit by the cab in the movie. And I didn't fall off the Christmas tree. That was the stunt man. And he did most of the acting too. He was my stunt actor."

Well stunt actor or not, this is Ferrell's most engaging role yet. He manages to play a man who has been raised as an elf and make him totally believable. When I asked him how he did this so successfully he answered, "You have to maintain a consistency in the performance. It was necessary for this character to be played straight and real."

He also has to loom over all the other characters, especially Bob Newhart as "Papa Elf." I asked him if this illusion that he was so tall was trick photography. "No," he responded, "they just put me in the foreground and everyone else in the background so that it gave the illusion that I was taller. But this also meant that when I was acting with the others that they could never make eye contact with me."

Switching subjects I asked if he regretted leaving "Saturday Night Live." Quick as a flash he stated decisively, "Not at all!"

Then he continued, "I never wanted to stay too long or leave too early. It had to be just the right time and I think I did it. At least it felt like it was the right time to leave."

Ferrell has something like six projects lined up in the future. These include playing opposite Nicole Kidman in a feature film version of "Bewitched," starring in "A Conspiracy of Dunces," and replacing Robert Downey, Jr. in the new Woody Allen movie.

When asked if he got the entire script for the Allen movie, or just a few pages, he replied, "I got it all. But I only got it for like eight hours and then they took it back. I guess I should have xeroxed it while I had the chance but I didn't think to do it. It is just all so secretive you know. I mean the script didn't have a title. It just had the initials "WAFP" which stood for Woody Allen Fall Project."

For a final question I asked him if he had always been funny. He answered with a serious expression on his face. "No," he said, "I have only been funny about seventy four per cent of the time. Yes I think that is right. Seventy-four per cent of the time."

That cracked me up, and he laughed along with me. "I am glad you laughed with me. Some people don't think I am funny. James Caan told me at the end of filming 'Elf' that he had been waiting through the whole film for me to be funny - and I never was."

Well I think he's funny. I think he's hilarious. Maybe he just draws on his inner elf to charm us all. However he does it his career is going great and the sky is the limit. He is one of the few "SNL" regulars whose career will only get brighter as he moves on to a full-fledged big screen career.

 

 

 

 

 

©2003 Jackie K. Cooper

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